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Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

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Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#251

Post by trialect »

marcosscriven wrote: post #245
trialect wrote: post #243

So what exactly will you do with your printed plastic when you get bored of your printed stuff?

Certainly we should be mindful of single-use plastic. For prototyping, PLA is biodegradable in the right conditions, and doesn’t come from petroleum. There’re all sorts of things 3D printing is good for. Do you think 3D printing shouldn’t be allowed?

I'm not saying it shouldn't be allowed. But people really should be thinking about plastic usage (and they don't.. they just need that stuff handy to print whatever.. ) and all the waste they generate when they don't need the said printed part anymore (for better or worse their descendant/successor will not need it anymore and will throw it away...)

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#252

Post by regularfry »

bartvk wrote: post #222
sho_hn wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truly meant without offense, but I'd say if you haven't had a Prusa since the MK2S (which I think predates Bambulab entire existence?) your opinion is outdated and not really relevant anymore. The out of the box experience between a Bambu printer and a modern Prusa is not noticably different. You'll be onto your first print in 10 minutes with either. Prusa's product history simply goes back longer to when 3D printers…

I've been eyeing 3D printers and since a friend of mine is so happy with the A1 Mini, that's what I was leaning towards to. Is there a Prusa equivalent model of the Bambu A1 Mini?

The Prusa Mini+ is basically the same idea but a couple of generations behind. Mine's an absolute rock, just throw prints at it and forget. Had it for years.

I'd love for Prusa to do an updated Mini. I'd have a hard time justifying the price point on the original today, given the competition, but it's genuinely a great bit of kit.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#253

Post by mirchibajji »

kzalesak wrote: post #182

I am surprised nobody mentioned the Qidi printers. They are the perfect balance between tinkerability and reliability (but see below - QA varies), and have open firmware. They are the only ones that currently compete with Bambu in high-temperature materials. These will outperform PC/Nylon and can also print advanced stuff as PPS, especially on the new Q2. Now, for their QA - it is not on par with Prusa or Bambu, howe…

Another vote for Qidi from me. I have Qidi Plus4, which is amazing. I selected the UK version (where I live), and don't have any issues. I believe the faulty part issue you were referring has been resolved long since as mine doesn't have this, based on the part numbers.

I was against getting a Bambu mainly for the proprietary software.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#254

Post by mlukaszek »

Makciek wrote: post #233

I bought the Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo recently, and it's really good, especially looking at the price

Same. New to printing but haven't had a single failed print yet (only used PLA and PETG so far though), and the print quality is generally excellent. That said, it does not meet all the requirements of the OP.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#255

Post by sho_hn »

D_Alex wrote: post #241
sho_hn wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prusa generally has better print quality in terms of accuracy and better overhang performance. Prusa drives the slicer development ecosystem (Bambu Studio is a fork), so new production-ready advances typically come from them first, which is lovely to support. The Bambu products are fine. They print well. But the "it's on another level" stuff is mostly paid influencer narratives (a rampant thing in 3D printer YouTube,…

>Prusa generally has better print quality Only if you compare Prusa printing at 50 mm/s with Bambu at 500 mm/s. >and better overhang performance What? No. Proof: https://youtu.be/HcSOz-Lsxgg?feature=shared&t=293 >Prusa drives the slicer development ecosystem (Bambu Studio is a fork) Prusa slicer is also a fork ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

> What? No. Proof: https://youtu.be/HcSOz-Lsxgg?feature=shared&t=293

So this video's claim, if I got it right while skimming in a subway, is that when Prusa redesigned the part cooling fan shroud to improve overhang performance they also went ahead and improved the slicer, and the benchmark results that have them generally win overhang comparisons around that time may be attributed more to the software fix than the new HW parts.

That's very interesting information, thanks for sharing.

It's also exactly the kind of thing where a Bambu fan would normally go "oh, so they just made the better integrated product that works better in the end without the customer having to care why".

But I totally agree they should document this transparently since Prusa Slicer can also be used with off-brand printers to good success.

> Prusa slicer is also a fork ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sure, which it very prominently displays on the splash screeen to this day instead of hiding it, giving credit where credit is due.

The difference is that it was forked off from Slic3r much longer ago, Slic3r isn't really actively developed anymore, and Prusa has largely rewritten it since.

So it's a false equivalence. This sort of disingenuous comment is the reason a lot of people don't like the Bambu user/influencer brigrading.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#256

Post by syntaxing »

rtaylorgarlock wrote: post #248
syntaxing wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t tried the Prusa XL so I can’t say much about that and I’m a fan how Prusa supports OSHW. But let’s be real, Bambulabs printer are vastly superior. I don’t deny that a lot of “free” and open source work was used to make Bambulab printers today but their printers just work out of the box for less money. I’ve been 3D printing since the reprap days, had cheap printers like Enders, tried Prusa used upto the MKS2…

I'll counter: My Prusa mk2s I've upgraded to the point of Mk2.5s+. After ~10k hours, I'll call it as much of a 'product' as I need. I think the 'vastly superior' perception comes from people singularly want the print things without learning about 3dp. You know how Tesla fans and Soulcycle participants are like wildly enthusiastic about the things they enjoy despite some evidence that they should be a bit wary of supp…

What does “without learning about 3DP” mean? Why should a user need to know the in and outs of a 3D printer to enjoy 3D printing? I never really understood that gate keeping. From a technical perspective, Bambulab printers are cheaper and better in my opinion. Prusa just did too little and too late sticking with their i3 bed slinger. Of course they have the Prusa XL and Prusa Core now but they were late by over two years. By then, a large chunk of the market was already lost and it’ll take a lot to get it back.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#257

Post by syntaxing »

sho_hn wrote: post #209
syntaxing wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t tried the Prusa XL so I can’t say much about that and I’m a fan how Prusa supports OSHW. But let’s be real, Bambulabs printer are vastly superior. I don’t deny that a lot of “free” and open source work was used to make Bambulab printers today but their printers just work out of the box for less money. I’ve been 3D printing since the reprap days, had cheap printers like Enders, tried Prusa used upto the MKS2…

Truly meant without offense, but I'd say if you haven't had a Prusa since the MK2S (which I think predates Bambulab entire existence?) your opinion is outdated and not really relevant anymore. The out of the box experience between a Bambu printer and a modern Prusa is not noticably different. You'll be onto your first print in 10 minutes with either. Prusa's product history simply goes back longer to when 3D printers…

You’re telling me that there was any meaningful update between the MK2 to MK4? Prusa printer goes back longer, sure. My first printer was actually a Prusa style i3 reprap kit from 2014 even before Prusa made his company. Are they decent printers for the time? Yes. But they got complacent and had no meaningful updates for almost a decade. They had interesting additions like PANDA leveling, cyloid drives and etc, but end of the day it was still a bed slinger. Their MMU was absolutely garbage. The fact that Bambulab ate so much of their market between the two years it took them to even to sell a core XY printer is a testament of that. The out of the box experience superior for less money and actually great multilateral support. I honestly don’t care too much h for the multimaterial part. Just being able to swap filaments without heating up the hot end is already a godsend.

Mind you, I used to promote Prusa the same way I do for bambulabs now for almost a decade. But once again, Prusa did too little too late. Their Core One response was not quite enough.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#258

Post by lvl155 »

paulkrush wrote: post #168
lvl155 wrote: post #116

I would not print PC/Nylon/ABS at home. It’s really hard to make it work especially during colder months. Work with PLA to get the shape and order it online when you’re ready for advanced materials. I would also recommend HP MJF for nylons.

Why? He said he was going to enclose. Is this a fumes thing?

It’s not just safety. It’s also the costs. You have to print them in climate controlled environment which can get expensive. Print them looking “fine” is not the same as printing them to specification of these materials. And you print ABS/PC/Nylon for functional needs.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#259

Post by chakintosh »

bb88 wrote: post #128
chakintosh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't care about business practices and general privacy concerns, Bambu. While I agree, I think it's heavily underselling Bambulab printers in terms of UX and print quality, they are the absolute best in the market and by a mile.

> UX and print quality GUI and UX are not the same. Prusa has pretty good print quality too but not as good a GUI as the Bambu. UX would include the ability to easily tear down a hot end, replace a nozzle, tighten any belts, and anything else that would affect your ability to print high quality prints. For prusa, since that's the printer I have experience with the most. Replacing the nozzle and clearing filament jams…

By UX I mean the overall experience, from assembly to Makerworld integration to the OS. I know because I'm a UX designer.

Re: Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

#260

Post by sho_hn »

eco wrote: post #235
sho_hn wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting though that this part of the game is about to change majorly for both brands. Prusa is widely known to launch their next-generation tool changer at Formnext in Nov, which is going to be a concept where you have a rack of nozzle+heatpipe+filament tube tools that the print head grabs and heats up inductively. And Bambu is more or less working on something similar they will probably launch some time ne…

Prusa is going to use Bondtech's upcoming INDX system, which swaps out the entire filament path. Bambu Vortek seems to just be swapping nozzles so, while that should cut down on waste, it's going to be much slower (XL is already much faster than AMS based printers but comes at a substantial price increase). INDX tool changes are expected to be around 8-12 seconds. Vortek would be probably be around 30+ seconds.

Interesting, yeah. I'm mainly interested in making multi-material faster without upping to the size of an XL, so it looks like the Prusa solution would be a better fit for my needs personally.

If Bambu are only swapping nozzles it also means they still need something AMS-like to swap the filament path, which somehow feels a bit clunky. I think having seperate filament paths is overall a cleaner and simpler design.

Someone's made an animation of how they think it'll look like: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YNSlx0GJ5Ig

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